


Climb Every Mountain

by hurinhouse



Category: White Collar
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-10
Updated: 2015-03-10
Packaged: 2018-03-17 07:17:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3520301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hurinhouse/pseuds/hurinhouse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Moz gets further proof of Neal's friendship</p>
            </blockquote>





	Climb Every Mountain

**Author's Note:**

> for Elrhiarhodan's [Promptfest IX](http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/516179.html#comments) for the prompt: Mozzie - mountains

"Moz!" 

 

"Neal?" Mozzie's head turns just slightly as Neal darts toward him across the concrete. The man keeps himself as still as possible, listening for what he can't see.

 

"Yeah, it's me, Moz. You okay?" 

 

"No, I'm not okay! Where have you been?!"

 

"Your clues were a bit _too_ cryptic, Professor Moriarty." 

 

"The Man reads everyone's texts, Neal. Everyone's! And if you're implying you're Sherlock, your deduction skills are severely lacking! I've been deteriorating here!"

 

Neal studies the rickety wooden chair Mozzie's perched upon, searching for a trap. He should wait for Peter, but Moz looks ready to collapse. His hands are bound above him, the rope hooked just three feet above on a parking garage ceiling. Why didn't he free himself?

 

"Peter was in court. I had to convince him to let me out of my radius without waiting for him."

 

"He let you off your leash-"

 

"Turns out the marshals don't know my ankle from Satchmo's." 

 

"- for me?"

 

He touches Mozzie's shoulder and the man stiffens, fingers spread out to steady himself. "Stay back! This whole thing could topple at any moment! How did you get up here? I didn't hear a helicopter. "

 

"Hmm?" Neal doesn't see any wires beneath the chair. Nothing above Moz, below, around.

 

"Are you in a harness or something? How'd you find me?"

 

"Not-so-anonymous tip."

 

"From?"

 

"It looked like Frank Deluca's boys on the grocery store video where you were taken." When Neal had received the call from Deluca's lackey, the man laughing like he'd been watching some slapstick B movie, he'd assumed the worst.

 

"The supermarket parking lot? That was days ago."

 

Neal stops his search to raise a brow that Mozzie can't see "Moz. You've been gone for three hours."

 

"Three hours? How did they get me out of the country that quickly?"

 

"Out of the country? Here, you can get down."

 

Moz yells when Neal tries to untie his blindfold. He carefully bats at Neal's hands with his elbows till Neal lets go.

 

"Don't touch it, Neal. I hope you're wearing goggles. The flapping gets closer each hour."

 

"What?"

 

"Where are we? Table Mountain? Mount Huang? I didn't hear any Chinese. The Matterhorn?"

 

Neal looks for possible head wounds. Hard to do without actually touching him. "Moz, you're in Jersey. In an abandoned parking garage. Don't you hear the cars on the street?"

 

"Don’t let that fool you, Neal. It's an audio loop; they must have brought an ipod."

 

"It's the turnpike."

 

"Oh really? And the raging winds?"

 

"I think Weather dot com forecasted a slight breeze today."

 

"I suppose I'm not suspended from an erected gallows, standing on a totem pole on the edge of a cliff then?"

 

What?

 

"It's a chair, Moz, and your imagination." Mozzie starts to deflate so… "But it _is_ a tall chair. And thin." In fact, Moz looks like a totem pole himself, bandana tight over his eyes, glasses resting on the top of his head.

 

"So my eye sockets won't be gouged by the buzzards if you take off the blindfold?"

 

The pigeons have come back after Neal's initial outburst, resting on the concrete ledge of the parking garage.

 

"I think I can keep them at bay." 

 

Neal unties the blindfold, eases it down. Mozzie blinks, takes in the quiet empty, half-sunny structure. A pigeon coos at him.

 

"I was unconscious, you know."

 

Neal nods, remembers seeing Moz faint in the footage when Deluca's men approached him. "He was your arch nemesis." _when they were twelve_ "That could render anyone comatose."

 

"Mind-altering drugs, Neal. Deluca must have injected them into my water supply before he abducted me."

 

"I'm sure you're right, Moz. That's the only way they could get near the Dentist of Detroit."

 

Peter's car pulls up the ramp. Neal plucks the Kick Me sign off of Mozzie's back as he helps him across the parking garage. 

 

"Thanks, Neal."

"To the ends of the earth, Moz."


End file.
